BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- The last time Birmingham went through a comprehensive planning process, it was 1961. The city was near its peak with 340,000 residents. The plan projected Birmingham's population would boom to 952,000 by 1980.

Fast forward 50 years. Obviously, things did not go according to the plan.

Now, a city of 212,000 is calling together the community to plot a different strategy.

According to Tom Magee, the city's chief planner, Birmingham government went through a major rethinking of its zoning and policies in the early 1990s. But it hasn't widely involved the community, as it is doing now to come up with comprehensive plan for a radically different Birmingham.

"We want as many people as possible to have their fingerprints on this plan," he said. "This is a chance for us as a city to refocus and decide where our priorities are and how we can grow the city. Maybe we can reverse the outmigration."

But the plan won't be worth much if it doesn't capture the imagination of residents and the private sector.

"It's all of us working together and making this plan come to fruition," he said.

Members of the planning team will be on hand to get feedback on goals and strategies. All meetings are 4:30-7:30 p.m.

This week, at three open house meetings, people can see what their fellow citizens said during two rounds of preliminary public meetings. Those leading the planning process said the events will be an opportunity for the public to judge whether the planning process is on the right track.

Larissa Brown is the director of planning for the firm hired to help guide the process, Goody Clancy. Brown said the open houses this week are a chance for people to critique what's been gathered so far and glimpse where they are going.

"Did we hear them right? Did we get the big ideas right?" she said. "And then we'll show them some of the strategies we are talking about to achieve those goals."

Brown has had tough assignments before. She helped lead a 2008 comprehensive planning process in post-Katrina New Orleans. That plan has been adopted by the city and has the force of law, so zoning has to reflect it. Brown also worked in Shreveport, La., and Tyler, Texas.

Brown said Birmingham has assets, such as a strong and diverse set of cultural institutions, and a place in history that has national significance. And despite the population drain, the downtown has continued to be the key regional employment center.

"Not all cities of that type have been able to keep that kind of importance," she said.

Most cities, particularly industrial ones, have seen a decline in population due to the steep decline in U.S. manufacturing employment and the rapid growth in suburbanization.

Along with that comes the depopulation and blight that afflict some neighborhoods. What Birmingham hasn't been able to do yet is reverse the tide and start bringing people back into the city.

"In the last decade, there have been some cites that are coming back," Brown said.

Strategies

By importing some ideas from successful cities and capitalizing on current trends, Birmingham has a chance to bounce back, she said.

A younger generation is drawn to the concept of urban living, and a growing population of empty nesters also is showing a preference for downsized uban living. Rising fuel prices make the long commutes from the outer-ring of suburbs less appealing.

Brown said that public meetings indicated support for the development of dense, mixed-use urban districts in addition to rejuvenation of traditional neighborhoods.

One thing Birmingham has going for it is that Birmingham historically has had village centers such as Five Points South and West, Forest Park and Avondale, Woodlawn, and Ensley.

Other areas that grew up in a more suburban way can find places to create concentrated zones of transit-oriented development. Abandoned shopping centers, for instance, can be redeveloped into mixed-use centers, Brown said.

Developing those nodes of density also will improve Birmingham's prospects of developing a better transit system, another common desire expressed during the previous rounds of planning meetings. A successful transit system needs that kind of critical mass to produce strong ridership, she said.

Other strategies under consideration include the creation of a redevelopment authority and land bank, a public authority that can assemble abandoned and tax delinquent properties, clean them up and sell them to developers willing to build.

A redevelopment authority can "create visible successes and by using some government investment, that will draw private improvements," Brown said.

And that will be key, Magee said. "It is not just what government can do," he said. "In order to grow a city, you have got to have the private sector step up to the plate as well."